In the pharmaceutical industry, shikimic acid from chinese star anise is used as a base material for production of Tamiflu (oseltamivir). In early 2005, Roche announced a production shortage of oseltamivir. According to Roche, the major bottleneck in oseltamivir production is the availability of shikimic acid, which cannot be synthesised economically and is only effectively isolated from Chinese star anise, an ancient cooking spice. The low isolation yield of shikimic acid from chinese star anise is blamed for the 2005 shortage of oseltamivir. Star anise is grown in four provinces in China and harvested between March and May. It is also produced in Lang Son province, Vietnam. The shikimic acid is extracted from the seeds in a ten-stage manufacturing process. Thirteen grams of star anise make 1.3 grams of shikimic acid, which can be made into 10 oseltamivir 75 mg capsules. Ninety percent of the harvest is already used by Roche in making oseltamivir.
Although most autotrophic organisms produce shikimic acid, it is a biosynthetic intermediate and generally found in very low concentrations. Shikimic acid can also be extracted from the seeds of the sweetgum fruit, which is abundant in North America, in yields of around 1.5%, so just 4 kg of sweetgum seeds are enough for fourteen packages of Tamiflu. By comparison star anise has been reported to yield 3 to 7% shikimic acid. Recently biosynthetic pathways in E. coli have been enhanced to allow the organism to accumulate enough material to be used commercially. Other potential sources of shikimic acid include the ginkgo tree. However, current extraction procedures for shikimic acid are typically labor and reagent intensive. Accordingly, there is a need in the art to develop new sources of and new extraction procedures for shikimic acid.